IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 42, NO.

6, JUNE 2004 1161

Sun Effects in 2-D Aperture Synthesis Radiometry

Imaging and Their Cancelation
Adriano Camps, Senior Member, IEEE, Mercé Vall-llossera, Member, IEEE, Núria Duffo, Member, IEEE, M. Zapata,
Ignasi Corbella, Member, IEEE, Francesc Torres, and V. Barrena

Abstract—The Microwave Imaging Radiometer by Aperture of the scene, is the physical temperature of the receivers
Synthesis (MIRAS) is the single payload of the European Space [3], are the normalized antenna copolar voltage
Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth patterns at and polarizations,
Explorer Opportunity mission. MIRAS will be the first two-di-
mensional aperture synthesis radiometer for earth observation. is the fringe-wash function, is the center frequency
Two-dimensional aperture synthesis radiometers can generate is
brightness temperature images by a Fourier synthesis process the spatial frequency sampled (baseline) that depends on
without mechanical antenna steering. To do so and have the the antenna position difference, and the director cosines
necessary wide swath for earth observation, the array is formed by are defined with respect
small and low directive antennas, which do not attenuate enough
bright noise sources that may interfere with the measurements. to the and axes in the antenna reference frame [ is
This study analyzes the impact of the radio-frequency emission perpendicular to the orbital plane; is 32 upward titled from
from the sun in the SMOS mission, reviews the basic image the velocity vector; see Fig. 1(a)].
reconstruction algorithms, and proposes a technique to minimize In MIRAS the zero-baselines are the
sun effects. elements of the Stokes vector measured by three redundant noise
Index Terms—Antenna arrays, imaging, interferometry, ra- injection radiometers [(NIR) see Fig. 1(b)]
diometry.
I. INTRODUCTION

T THE MICROWAVE Imaging Radiometer by Aperture

Synthesis (MIRAS) instrument [1], [2] is the single
payload of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture
and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, and it will be the first (2)
two-dimensional (2-D) aperture synthesis radiometer for earth In (2), if is the antenna temperature at
observation. The brightness temperature image reconstruction
-polarization, if antenna temperature at
is performed through a Fourier synthesis process of the cross
-polarization, and if ,
correlations measured between the bandpass signals
where and are the third and fourth Stokes parameters in
and , at and polarizations by every pair of elements in
the antenna reference frame.
the array
In the case of identical antenna patterns
and negligible fringe-washing effects , (1)
reduces to a Fourier transform

(3)

The array structure determines the antenna positions and

(1)
where is the Boltzmann’s constant, and are the
receivers’ noise bandwidth and power gain, is the solid
angle of the antennas, is the brightness temperature
Manuscript received October 23, 2003; revised January 1, 2004. This work
was supported in part by the Spanish Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia
y Tecnología under Grant MCYT TIC2002-04 451-C02-01) and in part by
EADS-CASA Space Division (Madrid, Spain), prime contractor of SMOS
PLM during Phase B Activities.
A. Camps, M. Vall-llossera, N. Duffo, M. Zapata, I. Corbella, and F. Torres
are with the Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universitat
Politècnica de Catalunya, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain.
V. Barrena is with the GMV SA, Tres Cantos, E-28760 Madrid, Spain.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TGRS.2004.826561
0196-2892/04$20.00 © 2004 IEEE
the discrete samples of that are measured, and (1)
can be viewed as a Fourier series expansion. Additionally, if
is viewed as a set of independent point sources,
(1) can be discretized and (3) becomes a DFT. In MIRAS,
the array is formed by three arms 120 apart, with 23 equally
spaced antennas each [Fig. 1(b)]. The Y-array configuration
leads to an hexagonal sampling of the spatial frequency
domain, which is optimum in terms of number of antennas and
correlators [4]. To avoid aliasing in the unit circle in the image
reconstruction process, the antennas must be spaced
wavelengths. However, to minimize the number of antennas
for a given angular resolution in SMOS, the antenna spacing
is 0.875 wavelengths, some aliasing exists, but a wide swath is
preserved.
1162 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 2004

Fig. 1. (a) Instrument topology and observation geometry. Orbital parameters: mean altitude = 755:5 km, eccentricity = 0:001 165; inclination =
98:416 470 773 546 , mean argument of perigee = 90 ; mean local time ascending node = 6 h, mean anomaly = 090 . (b) SMOS payload module phase B
configuration (courtesy of EADS-CASA Espacio): three arms 120 apart, with 21 light and cost-effective front-end (LICEFs), plus two redundant LICEFs per
arm (one LICEF and one LICEF/NIR) in its opposite direction in the hub. Antenna spacing is 0.875 wavelengths.

the whole plane. The region between the earth–sky

Fig. 2. Aliasing in 2-D aperture synthesis Y-shaped interferometric
radiometers for an antenna spacing of 0.875 wavelengths, 32 array tilt, 30
array steering and 755 km platform height. Representation of the earth–sky
horizon, unit circle, DFT basic period, geometric place of the sun positions
(direct and reflected images), and their six closest replicas to the main DFT
period. The extended alias-free FOV is the largest region where the brightness
temperature images can be formed using the FOV extension presented in this
work, as an extension of [7] to the case where sun and moon can be present.
horizon and the unit circle corresponds to the sky, which has
a known brightness temperature much lower than that of the
earth [5], [6]. As explained in Section III, this contribution can
be subtracted from (1) to enlarge the alias-free field of
view (AF-FOV) to the region limited by the six replicas of the
earth–sky horizon (curved-hexagon solid line) [7]. However,
in this process, any bright noise source or interference not
properly canceled will degrade the radiometric performance of
the instrument.
Fig. 3 shows also the geometric place of the positions
occupied by the sun during a complete year for both direct
(dark gray) and reflected (light gray) contributions. For the
present SMOS configuration, a detailed analysis [8], [9] shows
that the sun is present during approximately 96% of the time
[Fig. 3(a) and (b)], and only % of the time it is eclipsed
by the earth. The sun can be as high as 56.6 from the array
boresight [Fig. 3(a) and (c)], while the reflected image can
appear up to 44.7 from the array boresight. In addition, the
brightness temperature of the sun depends on the solar cycle
and can have strong fluctuations. Therefore, it is not obvious
how to model and compensate sun effects. In Section IV, a
method to deal with this problem is presented.

II. SUN EFFECTS III. REVIEW OF IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION ALGORITHMS

Fig. 2 shows the unit circle where the The image reconstruction algorithm described in [7] allows to
half-space in front of the array is mapped, and the closest six extend the AF-FOV up to the earth replicas (Fig. 2) by subtracting
replicas (solid lines). The alias-free field of view is determined to the visibility samples the contributions from the following:
by the region in the unit circle limited by these six replicas. • the physical temperature of the receivers ( ):
The earth–sky horizon is not circular, but has an ellipsoidal-like , which appear as offsets in the visibility
shape due to the 32 array tilting. For the SMOS orbital samples, except at the zero baseline,
parameters [see caption for Fig. 1(a)] and the array tilting, , which is computed as the average of the
the earth–sky horizon and the closest six replicas curves are three NIR measurements (2);
shown in Fig. 2 as dashed–dotted lines. The hexagon (dashed • the sky: ;
line) is the basic period of the DFT, and brightness temperature • a constant brightness temperature in the region occupied
replicas of this hexagonal “tile” are repeated periodically over by the earth: , whose
CAMPS et al.: SUN EFFECTS IN 2-D APERTURE SYNTHESIS RADIOMETRY 1163

>
Fig. 3. (a) Histogram (1 bins) of the angle of direct sun directions with respect to the array boresight as a function of the day of the year. Angle 90 means
days when the sun is behind the array during part of the day. (b) Histogram (1 bins) of the angle of reflected sun directions with respect to the array boresight as
>
a function of the day of the year. (c) Angle of direct sun directions with respect to the array boresight as a function of the day of the year. Angle 90 means days
when the sun is behind the array during part of the day. (d) Angle of reflected sun directions with respect to the array boresight as a function of the day of the year.

amplitude is determined so that the differential

visibility at the origin is zero

(4)
(7)

where

(8)
(5)
and the symbol “ ” refers to measured antenna patterns and
fringe-wash functions that may be slightly different with respect
to the actual ones. As compared to the original formulation [7],
the term in (4) has been included in baselines different
from to account for the new term in the
(6) visibility function (1). The term has been modified from
1164 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 2004

the original formulation to account for sky and galactic back-
ground radiation inhomogeneities. Equation (1) reduces now to
The visibility samples (without units) that would be measured
by the instrument corresponding to unitary point sources lo-
cated at the positions of the direct or reflected sun and moon
can be com-
puted as

(9)

which can be solved for , i.e.,

the deviations of the brightness temperature over the mean value
in the AF-FOV. The solution of (9) can be reached by
discretizing all the visibility samples for all points and (10)
then solving the set of linear equations of the form
where and can be determined
using the following:
by geometrical relationships or from the data itself looking to
• an iterative algorithm as described in [7]; the peak’s position in (12).
• the pseudoinverse matrix as in [10] in the one-dimensional
• A “raw” brightness temperature image is formed by taking
case; or
the inverse Fourier transform of
• a conjugate-gradient algorithm as in [11] in the 2-D case.
Note that in (9) the measured antenna patterns and (11)
fringe-wash functions are the estimated ones used in the image
reconstruction. • The normalized direct and reflected sun and moon images
(without units) are estimated from
IV. INCLUDING SUN AND MOON EFFECTS IN 2-D APERTURE
(12)
SYNTHESIS INTERFEROMETRIC RADIOMETER IMAGE
RECONSTRUCTION ALGORITHMS if the direct and/or reflected sun and/or moon are visible.
Before including the effect of the sun and moon in (4), the • A first estimate of the sun brightness temperature is ob-
following considerations must be taken into account. tained as the ratio of (units Kelvin)
• Direct sun images appear in the AF-FOV through replicas and (without units) in the direc-
of the main DFT period. tion of the direct sun
• Reflected sun and moon images appear overlapped with
earth replicas (Fig. 2) and, therefore, is more difficult for
the image reconstruction algorithm to take them into ac- (13)
count properly.
• Positions of the direct and reflected sun and moon are • The same ratio is computed at the direction of the reflected
known a priori, since they depend on the relative position sun
and orientation between the sun or moon and the platform,
as well as its attitude.
• Shape of the direct sun and moon images is not perturbed, (14)
while the reflected ones can be distorted by the scattering.
• Since the image of the direct sun appears overlapped with
• Sun and moon contribute to and, therefore, affect the
the image of the earth, an estimate of the power reflection
average brightness temperature of the earth [ in (8)],
coefficient at is performed as the ratio
which translates into an image bias.
of (14) and (13)
• At L-band, the brightness temperature of the sun presents
strong fluctuations. A procedure is needed to estimate it (15)
from the data itself, or it can be measured by radio-tele-
scope observations. The brightness temperature of the • A better estimate of is computed by subtracting
moon is rather constant, about 250 K [12]. to (13) an estimated contribution from the earth’s back-
At this point, the brightness temperature of the sun can be first ground and the scattered down-welling atmosphere
estimated from the data itself, as explained below. Since the sun sky radiation
and moon are seen under an angle1 much smaller than the an-
gular resolution of the instrument,2 they appear as point sources.
1The sun and moon disks seen from the earth are  0:5 wide, although the (16)
solar disk can appear larger at L-band.
2The angular resolution of MIRAS ranges from 1.60 to 2.25 , if the rectan- where the physical temperature is approximated by
gular or Blackman windows are used to taper the visibility samples, respectively. 290 K.
CAMPS et al.: SUN EFFECTS IN 2-D APERTURE SYNTHESIS RADIOMETRY 1165

Fig. 4. SEPS simulation results (Y-polarization) corresponding to a pass over the Western Mediterranean region (Spain and North of Africa). (a) SEPS input
brightness temperature distribution. (b) Original brightness temperature in the unit circle limited by replicas of earth–sky horizons. (c) Ideal FFT-reconstructed
brightness temperature in the extended AF-FOV. (d) Reconstructed brightness temperature in the extended AF-FOV without sun/moon effects. (e) Same as (d), but
with sun effects: the alias image of direct sun appears as a bright spot in the image. (f) After sun cancelation the image looks like (d).

In the case of the moon, since the instrument’s angular resolu- and then included in (4)
tion is 2.25 and 250 K [10], the amplitude of the
moon’s image is approximately 0.5 2.25 250 K 12 K,
which is easily masked by the variations of the brightness tem-
perature of the earth’s background, and the procedure described
above does not perform satisfactorily. Therefore, an estimate of
the moon’s brightness temperature is needed [10].
Once the amplitude of the four different contributions are
(18)
properly estimated, the corresponding visibility samples can be
computed from (10)
from where can be computed as in (19), shown at the
bottom of the page. Now, (9) with sun and moon effects removed
can be solved by any of the image reconstruction methods dis-
(17) cussed [7], [10], [11].

(19)
1166 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 2004
TABLE I
RADIOMETRIC ERRORS UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS: BIAS IN THE
EXTENDED AF-FOV AND RMS ERROR IN A CIRCLE CENTERED
0
AT (0; 0:24) OF RADIUS 0.3
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig. 4 shows simulation results perfomed using the SMOS
end-to-end performance simulator (SEPS) [13] corresponding
to a pass over the Western Mediterranean region (Spain and
North of Africa):
• Fig. 4(a) shows the input brightness temperature distribu-
tion generated at -polarization using the internal data-
base of geophysical parameters and the attitude and posi-
tion of SMOS.
• Fig. 4(b) shows the original brightness temperature in
the unit circle restricted to the region limited by replicas
of earth–sky horizons, where theoretically the brightness
temperature can be reconstructed.
• Fig. 4(c) shows the ideal FFT-reconstructed brightness
temperature, without noise and instrumental errors, when
the sun and moon are not activated in SEPS. Note that
now the reconstruction is limited to the extended AF-FOV
(Fig. 2), which is limited in the bottom part by the hexag-
onal DFT basic period. This image has the same angular
resolution as the actual instrument, but does not have any
errors. It is the reference image with respect to which the
radiometric performance degradation is studied.
Three different scenarios have been considered when noise and
instrumental errors are taken into account.Numerical results are
presented in Table I:
1) Sun and moon not activated in SEPS. Fig. 4(d) shows
the reconstructed brightness temperature in the extended
AF-FOV. The brightness temperature bias are approxi-
mately 5.6 and 1.0 K at - and -polarizations, respec-
tively. This bias is dependent on the scene being imaged
and it is due to the fact that the average brightness temper-
ature in the region occupied by the earth is different from
the average brightness temperature in the AF-FOV. This
is a fundamental limitation of the instrument when oper-
ated in aliasing conditions, and will require some kind of
vicarious calibration to compensate and track this bias.
The root mean square (rms) errors are 2.13 and 2.14 K, at
- and -polarizations, which are very close to the the-
oretical predictions [8].
2) Sun and moon activated in SEPS, but no cancelation
algorithm applied. Fig. 4(e) shows the reconstructed
brightness temperature in the extended AF-FOV. The
alias image of the direct sun image appears as a bright
spot, and the tails of the impulse response extend all
along the AF-FOV. For the impulse response of the
reflected sun, in the aliased region, these tails enter in
the AF-FOV and are also important. The global image
biases vary less than K (although this value is
highly dependent on the sun position and the scenario),
but the rms radiometric error dramatically increases up to
14–16 K, preventing from performing any soil moisture
or ocean salinity retrievals. In other scenarios simulated,
the rms radiometric error can increase even further, up
to 80 K [8], [13] (see also http://www.tsc.upc.es/eef/re-
serach_lines/mrs/microcal/uCal02_Camps.pdf).
3) Sun and moon activated in SEPS, and cancelation algo-
rithm applied. Fig. 4(f) shows the reconstructed bright-
ness temperature in the extended AF-FOV. The image is
no longer contaminated by a high bright spot from the
sun. However, comparing Fig. 4(f) and (d), the bright-
ness temperature in Fig. 4(f) (marked by a circle) is lower,
which is due to the fact that the estimated sun bright-
ness temperatures ( 231 949 K and
234 825 K) are larger than the value used in the simula-
tions (218 000 K). Despite this error, the impact of the
sun is much smaller, with smaller bias, and rms radio-
metric errors of 2.96 and 3.52 K at - and -polariza-
tions. In addition, from an operational point of view, since
on average, due to polarization mixing in the antenna ref-
erence frame, the estimated and values
must be equal, and has slow variations, the es-
timated values in a series of consecutive snapshots can
be averaged so as to improve the estimation of
before applying the image reconstruction algorithm, or it
can be directly measured from ground with a calibrated
radio-telescope.
VI. CONCLUSION
This work has analyzed the effect of the presence of the sun
in 2-D aperture synthesis radiometers for earth observation,
and particularly in the SMOS mission of the European Space
Agency. Due to aliasing in the Fourier synthesis imaging,
replicas of the direct sun image appear overlapped with the
image of the earth corrupting it, and making it useless for
scientific purposes. This paper has reviewed a previous image
reconstruction algorithm with a preprocessing technique to
enlarge the alias-free FOV. The additional preprocessing
necessary to account for the receivers’ physical temperature
term in the visibility function equation has been presented,
as well as the procedure to estimate and cancel the effects
of the presence of the sun and the moon. Simulation results
using the SMOS end-to-end performance simulator show a
significant improvement in the rms radiometric accuracy when
the cancelation algorithm is applied, as compared to when it
is not, even when the estimates are based on a single
snapshot. In an operational system, the algorithm performance
can be improved by averaging estimates from consecutive
snapshots.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are very grateful to four anonymous reviewers
whose comments have helped to increase the clarity of this
paper.
CAMPS et al.: SUN EFFECTS IN 2-D APERTURE SYNTHESIS RADIOMETRY
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[12] Z. Kopal, The Moon, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1969.
[13] A. Camps, I. Corbella, M. Vall-llossera, N. Duffo, F. Marcos, F.
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IGARSS, Toulouse, France, July 21–25, 2003.
Adriano Camps (S’91–A’97–M’00–SM’02) was
born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1969. He received the
Telecommunications Engineering degree and the
Ph.D. degree in telecommunications engineering in
1992 and 1996, respectively, both from the Poly-
technic University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona,
Spain.
From 1991 to 1992, he was with the ENS des Télé-
communications de Bretagne, Bretagne, France, with
an Erasmus Fellowship. In 1993, he joined the Elec-
tromagnetics and Photonics Engineering group, at the
Department of Signal Theory and Communications, UPC, as an Assistant Pro-
fessor, and since 1997 as an Associate Professor. In 1999, he was on sabbatical
leave at the Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory, University of Massachu-
setts, Amherst. His research interests are microwave remote sensing, with spe-
cial emphasis in microwave radiometry by aperture synthesis techniques. He
has performed numerous studies within the frame of European Space Agency
SMOS Earth Explorer Mission. He is an Associate Editor of Radio Science.
Dr. Camps received the second national award of university studies in
1993, the INDRA award of the Spanish Association of Telecommunication
Engineering to the best Ph.D. in 1997, the extraordinary Ph.D. award at the
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in 1999, the First Duran Farell Award
and the Ciudad de Barcelona Award, in 2000 and 2001, respectively, both for
Technology Transfer; and in 2002, the Research Distinction of the Generalitat
de Catalunya for contributions to microwave passive remote sensing. He was
Chair of Cal ’01. He is editor of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Newsletter and President-Founder of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Society Spain Chapter.
1167
Mercè Vall-llossera (M’99) received the Senior Telecommunication Engineer
and the Doctor Telecommunication Engineering degrees in 1990 and 1994, re-
spectively, both from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona,
Spain.
She has been lecturing and doing research at the Department of Signal Theory
and Communications, UPC from 1990 until 1997 as an Assistant Professor and
from 1997 until present as an Associate Professor. She spent a sabbatical year in
Montreal with the scholarship of the “Programme Québécois de Bourses d’ex-
cellence” (1996–1997): “Stages de Formation postdoctorale au Québec pour je-
unes diplômés étrangers.” Her research interests include numerical methods in
electromagnetism, microwave radiometry, antenna analysis, and design. Cur-
rently, her research is mainly related to the study of numerical methods ap-
plied to the sea surface emissivity and their characterization at L-band and the
MIRAS/SMOS project.
Dr. Vall-llossera, along with the other member of the radiometry group at
UPC, was awarded the “Primer Premio Duran Farell de Investigación Tec-
nológica” in 2002, and the “Primer Premio Ciutat de Barcelona d’Investigació
Tecnològica” in 2001.
Núria Duffo (S’91–M’99) received the Telecom-
munication Engineer degree from the Polytechnic
University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain,
and the Doctor in Telecommunication Engineering
from UPC, in 1990 and 1996, respectively.
Since 1997, she has been an Associate Professor
at UPC. Her current research interests are numerical
methods in electromagnetics, microwave radiometry,
antenna analysis, and design.
M. Zapata, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
Ignasi Corbella (M’99) received the Telecom-
munications Engineering and Doctor Engineering
degrees, both from Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 1977 and
1983, respectively.
In 1976, he joined the School of Telecommuni-
cation Engineering in UPC as a Research Assistant
in the Microwave Laboratory, were he worked
on passive microwave integrated circuit design
and characterization. During 1979, he worked
at Thomson-CSF, Paris, France, on microwave
oscillators design. In 1982, he became an Assistant Professor at UPC, an
Associate Professor in 1986, and a Full Professor in 1993. He is currently
teaching microwaves at the undergraduate level in UPC and has designed and
taught graduate courses on nonlinear microwave circuits. During the school
year 1998–1999, he worked at NOAA/Environmental Technology Laboratory,
Boulder, CO, as a Guest Researcher, developing methods for radiometer
calibration and data analysis. His research work in the Department of Signal
Theory and Communications, UPC includes microwave airborne and satellite
radiometry and microwave system design.
Francesc Torres received the Ingeniero and Doctor Ingeniero degrees in
telecommunication engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia
(UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 1988 and 1992, respectively
In 1988–1989, he was a Research Assistant in the RF System Division, Euro-
pean Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, devoted to microwave device
testing and characterization. In 1989, he joined the Antenna-Microwave-Radar
group, UPC, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His main research
interests are focused on the design and testing of microwave systems and sub-
systems. He is currently engaged in research on interferometric radiometers de-
voted to earth observation.
V. Barrena, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.